1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of computer system management, and in particular, to the automated management of electronic content in a client system from a vendor.
2. Description of Related Art
In managing a computer system, a major problem is keeping abreast of rapid changes in the electronic content. For example, with regard to software, by the time a customer first boots up a software onto the machine, it is likely that an upgraded release of the software is already available. However, although updates are available, oftentimes the customer is not aware of the availability of the updates, or if this is known, it may not be easy for the customer to determine which update to select or whether it is necessary to acquire the update. Furthermore, if it can be determined that something should be updated, it can be time-consuming and frustrating to traverse various customer property values represented in an accessible electronic form in the client's computer system, e.g., computer software, publications in electronic format, hardware, and communications specifications. In the present context, property value is synonymous with the electronic content of the computer system.
Current customer support systems do a textual search of documents using specific keywords or wild cards to find upgrading information. Other systems compare user inventory data to data stored in a database and analyze the user inventory by bringing the data entries that map computer software updates and fixes to inventory, from the database into an application program or service as needed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,077 mentions that software updates and fixes are determined by comparisons of inventory against database entries containing information about computer software available on the update service computer. This approach is limited to the comparison of specific software.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,829 determines new programs by comparing a specific set of properties such as build number, operating system and natural language from within the client setup executable. However, this method is limited to a specific set of hard coded properties or actions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,446,885 describes a rule-based application structure which uses the relational database to store rules and the logic programs needed by the system to execute the rules. The evaluation is done by the program and may need excessive amounts of communication to accomplish a task.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,675,784 describes a data structure for collecting component and specification level data related to products and uses a relational database system to search products based on component criteria. However, the system does not allow for links between components and actions, where the links are stored and evaluated within the database.
Therefore, the need exists for a system and method of determining a client's needs using a SQL object relational database management system to recursively evaluate dependency rules relating to client content.